Tapioca

Tapioca au lait moulé (moulded milk tapioca pudding) teaches one true thing: the tapioca must be completely tender before the eggs enter. The bain-marie can set yolks and preserve the lift of whipped whites, but it cannot soften a chalky pearl trapped inside the finished pudding.

The old formula assumes a generous cylinder mould and a cook able to move the hot base into a second saucepan before the eggs arrive. For four, I halve every stated quantity, use a 1-liter charlotte mould or straight-sided pudding basin, and transfer the base to a cool heatproof bowl. The second saucepan is brigade scaffolding; the transfer itself stays because dropping the residual heat protects the yolks. A roasting tin becomes the bain-marie (hot-water bath). One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the pudding turns out in one pale, softly resilient cylinder, rich with butter yet lightened by the whites, with tiny translucent beads catching beneath its surface. Cook the tapioca until no chalky center remains before you touch the eggs. That is the step that decides the dish.